A DIE HARD football fan travelled over 1,400 MILES from Lativa to North Macedonia to watch his team’s Conference League qualifier but he was the only one to make the trip.
Gints Jankovskis, 25, spent over £500 flying from Riga in Latvia to Skopje via Warsaw to watch FK Rīgas Futbola Skola – RFS – take on FK Makedonija at the Gjorce Petrov Stadium.
The Latvian’s first flight to Warsaw was cancelled and after an hour of talking with the airline he was able to get a new ticket.
He vlogged the whole trip which shows the chaos that followed, with it taking him 15 hours to get to his destination.
It included jumping on a different airline in order to catch the flight to North Macedonia in time for the match against .
Ginsts told SunSport: “It is crazy, it took 15 hours to get there, it is so hard to get from Lativa from North Macedonia too because there are so few flights.
READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
“The first moment when I arrived at the stadium was interesting because I think they were not ready for the game as it only opened 40 minutes before kick off.
“That was really interesting, no one was really selling anything like only at the shop you can get something that was not in the stadium.
“There was not a lot of people, maybe a maximum of 400 people and it was chill, nothing was aggressive like that which was nice.”
And it was a worthwhile trip for Gints as Andrej Ilic netted the only goal of the game to give RFS a first-leg lead.
Most read in Football
He added: “It was so hot and we could have scored two or three goals, but I was loving the moment that we scored.”
BETTING SPECIAL – BEST NO DEPOSIT CASINO OFFERS
His attendance at the game was appreciated by the players and club itself as he spoke to many of the players after the game.
He said: “Yeah the players came to me and we have a really good connection and we are always celebrating together or crying together.
“But after the game, they came over and spoke to me for like 15 minutes.
“When the press conference was going on we were just talking by the bus about the trip.
“Some of them were surprised to see me, but some do follow me on social media and know I travel for all the games.
“Last year was like that as we were going for the group games in the Conference League.”
The whole trip cost Gints £515 but it was completely worth it.
He said: “Yeah of course, I can’t explain how the emotions are going on and the money is not a priority if I can see my team play in this competition.
“You can only get the emotions like this from football and it is so amazing.
“In Latvia, only two teams have been in Uefa competition group stage in its history, so for the Conference League to give clubs this opportunity it is great.
“I can not explain how crazy and exciting it was going on in Latvia as it is helping football become the No1 sport in the country.”
The club itself also tweeted a lovely message to him on social media.
It read: “The Man. The Myth. The Legend. Gints Jankovskis from Riverside Lions.
“Alone in Skopje supporting us. Its 39C ☀️Thank You 💙.”
To which Gints said: “I was surprised to see that it is so crazy to see how many people saw it online, it is like being a little internet star.”
Gints is now planning on travelling to Azerbaijan to watch RFS in the next round after they won the second leg at home 4-1.
Read More on The Sun
It is not the club’s first appearance in European football having made the group stages last season.
RFS did finish bottom of the group but did manage respectful draws against Istanbul Basaksehir and eventual finalists Fiorentina, which were both watched in person by Gints.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
